• by Ray Schultz , January 29, 2021

The Alliance for Audited Media (AAM) has launched a third-party audit program for digital publishers in an effort to combat ad fraud and reassure media buyers that domains are legitimate.  

The new offering, the AAM Digital Publisher Audit, certifies publishers by verifying their traffic sources and analyzing their business operations and site traffic, the AAM says.  

Audited publishers will appear on the AAM Audited Domain List, a listing that will also be distributed by the IAB Tech Lab. 

The goal is to” differentiate quality publishers and give marketers a common signal to evaluate those publishers,” states AAM CEO Tom Drouillard. 

The audit will be free to AAM clients throughout 2021 in an effort to ensure “cost is not a barrier for widespread publisher adoption to maximize this opportunity for marketers,” Drouillard adds.  

Meredith Corporation, American City Business Journals and The Globe and Mail are among the publishers that participated in creation of the audit.  

The program is also being supported by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA).  

“The marketing industry has made significant progress in bringing transparency and accountability to digital media buying, but the war on ad fraud continues,” states ANA CEO Bob Liodice.  

“The AAM Digital Publisher Audit is a major step toward providing assurances at the publisher level,” he adds.

The AAM audit is also aligned with MRC and TAG programs. 

Publishers that successfully complete the audit can also earn independent validation for TAG’s Certified Against Fraud program.  

Large publishers are required to utilize technology vendors accredited by the MRC, AAM notes.